The highly anticipated next installment to the Close Combat series is now available from Matrix Games

Matrix Games and CSO Simtek (www.csosimtek.com) are elated to announce that Close Combat: Cross of Iron is now available for purchase from the Matrix Games digital download service. Close Combat: Cross of Iron is the latest addition to the longstanding WWII tactical real time strategy series Close Combat, making it one of the most anticipated wargaming releases of the year. Cross of Iron will give veteran gamers all of the classic content and features that originally hooked them on the Close Combat series and couple it with a massive dose of new content and improvements to make a truly fantastic real ti

Close Combat: Cross of Iron thrusts the player into a variety of tactical situations where the outcome of seemingly small engagements can dictate the entire course of the Second World War. Players start off as a junior officer leading their men into intense tactical battles in real time in any of the several classic Close Combat campaigns or the massive new Fuger's Ostliche Wut, or Fuger's Eastern Fury campaign. As players survive and win through the thickest, most intense period of fighting during the conflict, they will find themselves negotiating a wide variety of terrain, weather conditions, and enemies. Such diversity of circumstances will see the player advancing across the frozen winter, hot dusty summer, and muddy autumn all within one of several immersive campaigns.

Close Combat: Cross of Iron also includes vast improvements to the Close Combat multiplayer support with a new multiplayer campaign system for battles. The service consists of a Campaign Server to which players connect to play a Strategic Campaign. With the option to either play against the AI or in a unique Massive Multiplayer Campaign, players can connect to the action any day and at any time and fight battles against other human opponents as often as they like.

In our previous dev diaries we focused on the different available game modes, as well as the design behind the UI. Today we are going to cover a number of different subjects, but all have something in common: why we decided to make Empires Apart.

It’s no secret that we drew heavy inspiration from games that marked our childhood: Age of Empires, Empire Earth, and others. We wanted to bring back that feeling, the familiar atmosphere of games we loved, but also add our own touch, as well as modernize the formula, bring it to 2018’s standards. Empires Apart is, basically, the game we wanted to play.

“Everyone was talking and chatting, when slowly came into sight the first tank I ever saw. Not a monster but a very graceful machine with beautiful lines…. Here was the missing tool of penetration, the answer to the dominance on the battlefield of small-arms fire.”—J.F.C. Fuller

Matrix Games/Slitherine’s upcoming release of Brian Kelly’s Desert War 1940-42 uses a simple game mechanic often found in WWII board games. It gives tank units a “special place” in the player’s toolbox—a positive shift to the combat force ratio if attacking, and the opposite when defending. Coming up short of attack factors? No problem! Throw in some tanks. A 1 to 1 attack can become a 2 to 1, 3 to 1, 4 to 1, etc. In Desert War 1940

Hello everyone, and welcome to our last Dev Diary for Check Your 6! Today we're going to talk about aircraft Speed, Movement and Control. You can find a quick preview down below, if you want to read the whole Dev Diary just click HERE.